


Arriving Too Late

by thatcrazywriterley



Series: The Too Late Tales [22]
Category: AEW, All Elite Wrestling, Being The Elite (Web Series), Young Bucks-Fandom
Genre: Multi, Polyamorous Relationships, Polyamory, baby number 5 is here, brothers share a wife, then shit gets real, trigger warning: surgery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:01:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24138538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatcrazywriterley/pseuds/thatcrazywriterley
Summary: When baby number 5 is too late after the due date, an emergency cesarean is required.
Relationships: Matt Jackson/Reader, Matt Jackson/Reader/Nick Jackson, Nick Jackson/Reader
Series: The Too Late Tales [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1695274
Kudos: 3





	Arriving Too Late

_(GIF owned by mitchtheficus on Tumblr)_

Nick was pale, making the dark shadows beneath his eyes stand out even darker. Matt kept running his hand over his face, scrubbing at the beard that had grown up in his days off. I sat in the hospital bed, watching the monitor that the nurses had strapped to my belly. Baby number five had been due over a week ago. He hadn’t wanted to come out then, and he didn’t want to come out now.

“Sometimes it happens,” my OBGYN said calmly. “Even after induction, sometimes a baby is stubborn. I know you’ve planned everything for a natural birth, like your other four. But this one… I think we’re going to have to do a Cesarian, Y/N.”

I took a deep breath, doing my best to steady my racing pulse. “What happens if we wait a while longer?”

Matt looked like he was going to throw up. The doctor leaned against the edge of my bed and crossed her arms over her chest, sighing. “I’m not willing to wait any more time, Y/N. Waiting an hour to get the OR ready is as much time as I’m willing to give. The longer we go, the chances of something going wrong go up dramatically.”

I looked past her to Matt and Nick, both of whom looked desperately broken. Nick sniffed hard, tears rolling down his cheeks. His brother reached over and took his hand, squeezing it tightly. Matt glanced up at me with brown eyes that were more terrified than I’d ever seen them.

It was that more than anything else that made my decision for me. I swallowed hard and turned to the doctor. “Let’s do it.”

She patted me on the leg and nodded. “I’ll go put the orders in. They’ll be here in soon to do your epidural.” She looked over at my husbands and sighed. “I should be able to get the big OR that has room for both of you. But if I can’t… there’s only room for one support person.”

I felt horribly sick and lightheaded. Like I was going to pass out. How could I choose between them? I thought I was going to fall apart from it.

The brothers looked at each other, communicating in that way that they had. I wish I knew what they were thinking, what they were saying to each other. I squeezed my eyes shut against the tears that welled up and spilled over onto my cheeks. My heart ached in my chest. I could _feel_ the shards of it tearing my insides into ribbons. The monitor at my side beeped loudly, a mirror of the panic that was spiking in my blood.

“Hey,” Nick said feebly, jumping to his feet and racing to stand at my side. He took my hand in his and squeezed hard. “Hey, Y/N, it’s okay. Relax. Relax. Breathe.”

I looked up into his terrified blue eyes and the set of his jaw. The tears were still wet on his cheeks as he gave me a small reassuring smile. “It’s going to be okay, Sunshine,” he said firmly, “Relax and breathe. We’re right here. And you’re going to be fine. You and the baby. Breathe.”

Matt took up a position on the other side of my bed. His brown eyes were worried but clear. He brushed his fingers through my hair, pulling it back off my face. He smiled softly and settled his free hand on my belly. “Relax, Mama. Everything is going to be okay. It’s all good.”

My heart soothed a little at the sound of their voices. They leaned over the bed, their brows pressed against my hair, one hand each on my stomach, thumbs rubbing slow circles. Their voices swept over me, earnest prayers for the safety of me and our baby. I had never heard them plead with God with such desperation. Matt’s calm tones were undercut by Nick’s tearful whispers and, between the two of them, I couldn’t help but cry—whether in comfort or fear, I didn’t know.

They stayed like that until the anesthesiologist came in to do my epidural. I watched them huddle together in the corner of the room, their heads together as they talked in hush tones. Nick was turned toward me, and I could see that his eyes shifted from worry to something like guilt and back again. I let out a groan as the needle slid into my skin and into my spine. Nick’s face paled and Matt looked over his shoulder at the sound.

“We’ll give this about fifteen minutes to set in well, and then we’ll get you prepped up,” the nurse said as the anesthesiologist walked out of the room. “I think we ended up with the small O.R.”

I felt my pulse quicken at the thought that I would have to do this without one of them. I was already terrified that something would go wrong. Now… what happened if it did, and I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to both of them?

As soon as the nurse left, my husbands took up their positions on either side of my bed. Matt stroked the back of his fingers over my cheek bone and smiled softly. “It’s alright, Y/N,” he said calmly. “Everything is going to be okay. Nick is going to go in with you.”

Nick’s fingers tightened on my own. I looked up at him and saw him watching his brother with something like awe and gratitude. “Matt,” he said, his voice cracking hard. “I can’t… you…”

Matt reached across me and took his brother’s hand again. “I want to be in there with you, too,” he said to me. He glanced back at Nick. “But I know that you need this—to be the one with her this time. And there’s no one in the world that I trust with her life than you, Nick. I know you’ll be there for what she needs.”

I blinked back tears again, warmed to my soul at the way they loved one another… loved me. Nick looked over at his brother and smiled gratefully. “You know I’d do anything…”

“I know.”

***

They rolled me up into the operating room thirty minutes later. I’d been prepped and put in a surgical gown, my hair tucked up beneath a cap. Matt had kissed me over and over again before they’d wheeled me out of my room. As I’d rounded the corner, the last thing I saw was the brothers embracing hard in the hallway crying.

Nick appeared at my side not long after, wrapped up in a blue paper hospital gown, cap, booties, and mask. He stood where they told him, and held my hand tightly in his own. “I love you, Sunshine,” he said, voice still rough and cracking.

“Love you, too,” I replied, feeling hazy. Everything from my chest down was numb. Fear was starting to settle in as they put up the drape that hid everything from view. “Nick… I’m scared.”

He rested his hand against the top of my head and squeezed my hand hard. “I know. But I’m right here. And Matt is just outside in the waiting room.” He glanced up at the doctor then back at me. “You’ll be out of here in no time… back in your room with both of us and our baby.”

“Okay, Y/N,” said the doctor, her voice muffled a little by her mask. “You shouldn’t feel anything other than pressure. If anything is sharp or painful, tell me immediately, okay?”

I nodded. “Okay.”

Nick’s face blanched at whatever they were doing. His eyes widened before he turned his attention back to me. He kept up a steady, soothing stream of chatter, reassuring me that everything was going to be fine, that soon we’d all be at home with the child that would make our family complete.

“Oh!” The sound came out of me without my consent at the feeling of pushing and tugging somewhere near my hips. I could _hear_ what the doctor was doing, even if I couldn’t feel it. “That’s so weird. I don’t like it.”

“That’s a normal reaction, Y/N,” the OBGYN soothed. “You’re doing great. We’ve almost got him.”

Something began beeping nearby. Nick jerked his head up toward the doctor. My head felt fuzzy and light. I was suddenly cold, and my body started shaking. I blinked hard, doing my best to focus on Nick.

“I can’t breathe,” I said, feeling panic rise in my body.

“Yes, you can,” replied the doctor firmly. “The anesthesia has just worked its way further up into your chest. Nick, keep her talking so she can see for herself.”

Nick looked down at me again, his blue eyes going wide and terrified as he started talking. “What’s the first thing you want to eat when you get home?”

The thought of food made me feel sick. “Lemonade pops.”

***

Nick stepped out into the hallway, leaning against the wall as the events of the past few minutes settled into him. He took a few deep breaths and tugged the mask down and the cap off his hair as he walked down toward the waiting room. Matt was sitting with his elbows on his knees, head in his hands. He jerked his head up when he heard Nick come around the corner.

His face went pale. “Nick… what happened?” Matt jumped to his feet and dashed across the room, taking his brother by the shoulders. “What happened?”

“They’re both fine,” he said calmly. “Ty’s perfect and healthy. I got to hold him while they… finished up with Y/N.”

“Is she okay?” his brother asked, a sense of terror still settled in his chest.

Nick took another deep breath. “She started bleeding. They stopped it pretty quick, but… they took her… the doctor had to do a hysterectomy. It was the only way they could…” He squeezed his eyes shut, shame washing over him. “The doctor asked me for permission… I had to…”

Matt tugged his brother into his arms and hugged him fiercely. “It’s okay. They’re both alright.” He was surprised to find himself crying into his brother’s shoulder. “They’re both okay.”

“She’s going to hate me,” Nick whimpered. “But that was the only thing… I couldn’t let her… I couldn’t…”

“Hey, hey, look at me,” Matt said, cradling his brother’s face, pressing their foreheads together. “She’s not going to hate you. You did everything right. Everything she could have asked. Our wife is alive and safe because of you.”

***

I was slow waking up. Nausea roiled my stomach. It took a moment for me to realize that I wasn’t in my room. The lower two thirds of my body were still numb. My hips, waist, and pelvis were wrapped tight with something—I could feel the pressure that was almost too much. A nurse came in, smiling as she looked me over. “Mrs. Jackson, how do you feel?”

“Nauseated. And numb.”

She nodded, turning back my blankets to look at the bandages I could now see around my hips. “The first is to be expected. The second will fade after a while. Your bandages look good. If you can stay awake for fifteen minutes or so, we can take you back to your room and your baby.”

My head throbbed painfully. “Why am I not there already?”

“Your delivery was complicated. But you and your baby are healthy, so there’s that to be thankful for.”

“Complicated?”

The nurse looked at the chart on her computer and sighed gently. She put her hand against my wrist. “I’ll call for your doctor to come talk with you before you go to your room.”

***

At last, they wheeled me back into my hospital room. Matt sat on the two-seater sofa, legs crossed out in front of him and head thrown back in sleep. Nick was in the recliner, his arms cradling our newborn baby boy against his shoulder.

He looked up when they brought me in. I could tell by the look on his face that he had been crying. “Hey, Sunshine. Look, Ty, it’s Mommy.”

The nurses moved my bed into place, hooked up my monitors and IVs, and then slipped quietly from the room. Nick watched me for a moment, letting me get settled back in before he spoke.

“How do you feel, Y/N?” he whispered, reaching for my hand.

“I feel…” My heart felt heavy and leaden. “I feel empty. But I understand why you did it.”

Nick’s blue eyes burred. “I’m sorry, Sunshine. I’m so sorry.”

“You’re the reason I’m still alive, Nick. Don’t ever be sorry for that.”

Matt appeared out of nowhere, leaning against the railing of my bed. “I told him he did the right thing,” he said confidently. He leaned over and kissed my hair before looking over at his brother. “Mama, you want to see him?”

I nodded, and Nick stood to place our last baby on my chest. He was perfect. Thick light brown hair and deep brown eyes. A rosebud mouth and rings around his wrists and ankles. “Tyson Massie Jackson,” I said with a faint smile. Then I looked up at Matt and Nick, watching them each in turn. “Our family is finally finished.”


End file.
